Articles and Interviews

Ricky Skaggs shows he's a man of few words
(Sep 2006)
It seems a bit peculiar that a master multi-instrumentalist like Ricky Skaggs has somehow managed to avoid recording an all-instrumental album in the past 30 years. Call it the curse of being an incredibly gifted tenor vocalist as well as an award-winning musician, or perhaps it's that everyone around the 52-year-old Skaggs, from family and friends to fellow pickers to his legions of fans, simply expect him to sing on most every song. With numerous vocal honors from country and bluegrass organizations during a career that stretches back some 35 years, such expectations just kind of come with the territory.... more

Bluegrass still rules with Ricky Skaggs
(Mar 2003)
It would seem that two decades after consistently topping the country charts and almost single-handedly leading the new-traditionalist movement of the early 1980s that paved the way for the likes of Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis and Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs would be content to pick up his mandolin, hop in the tour bus and hit the road every so often to stretch his legs and make a few bucks by singing his hits and picking a little bluegrass. Not quite. In fact, not by a longshot.... more

Skaggs carries on the Big Mon's tradition
(Oct 2001)
Late summer, 1996. Father of bluegrass Bill Monroe lay dying, bedridden from a debilitating stroke. The 84-year-old bluegrass patriarch should have had little to worry over, but worry he did. His music was central to who he was. More giving than a child would have been to him, as nurturing as the mother he lost when young, bluegrass was more than a series of notes to the man from Rosine, Ky. So, as his light grew ever dim, he fretted mightily that his music was going to the grave with him.... more

Skaggs plays ancient tones for the new millennium
(Mar 1999)
Ricky Skaggs has come full-circle these days. And it's something that suits him just fine. He's back playing bluegrass again full-time. As he proudly boasts, "we've come back to our (musical) roots." His bookings are up. His last two records have met with tremendous response from fans and critics alike. His band is one of the best in the business, and with his new record company, Cieli, which has signed some of the nation's top bluegrass acts, he seems poised to make bluegrass music as strong as its ever been, heading into a new millennium.... more

Skaggs rules bluegrass
(Nov 1997)
Ricky Skaggs says in the liner notes for his latest country album, "Life Is a Journey," "When I came to Nashville in 1980, country music had made a hard swing to the pop side. The Urban Cowboy look and sound was very hip at the time. I tried to get a record deal, but was told that I was way too country. I was asked, 'That bluegrass stuff, what is that?' Well here we are again, country has swung to the pop side once more, and here I am, way too country, and 'that bluegrass stuff, what is that?'"... more